ArduCopter 2.4 released

Version 2.4 of the ArduCopter code is now available in the AP Mission Planner and in the downloads area. Although not as big a change as the 2.3 release, it still includes a respectable number of enhancements and bug fixes.

improved throttle range in stabilize mode. You may find that it takes slightly higher throttle than previously during hover but hopefully you'll find that you have more useable range of the throttle stick as well.

The default PIDs are optimized for a 3DR/Jdrones quad with 850 motors and 10" props. If you're using more powerful motors/props, start by turning down Rate Roll P in 25% steps.

Thanks go to the numerous contributors including users and their detailed bug reports, developers and testers. Hopefully all together this will add up to a nice smooth release!

As per usual, please post your comments, issues in this discussion. For enhancement requests for future versions, feel free to add them to the issues list. Note: you can "star" an issue to receive emails when someone comments on the item. On the dev side it helps us because we can get an idea as to which feature requests are the most popular by sorting by the number of people how have starred each issue.

Replies to This Discussion

Ok, a daft guess for you, but its happenened to me so you never know. The oilpan hasn't slipped up on the pins has it - i wonder if crashing it into the ground a few times is reseating the pins and levelling the board again, but because its not all the way down it comes off centre again while you are transporting etc. Daft, but it happened to me twice and a bit of foam tape has sorted it.

Hi Dave, just checked again, no everything is firmly attached. Also it been a re-occurring thing, as it's how I've been resetting after a "lean" incident and flying again.

BUT...

Having seen Johann's method of mounting his APM1 (humble velcro!) I stripped off two of the three layers of foam & rubber that was holding my APM1 and mounted it on two pieces of velcro (Hobbyking special), just did a test flight and the "lean" did not occur in the flight! Will have a few more flights to test but if it's gone I'll be very happy.

My personal guess is that it has something to do with timing. On the dev team, Justin has been looking a lot at timing of the various bits of code running including DCM updates and capturing accel + gyro values..there are some significant timing differences between the APM2 and APM1 in this regard. How this may translate into the lean problem is a bit of a mystery but I suspect we will figure it out over the next few weeks (or maybe we will find that I'm totally wrong and it's just that the MPU6000 is more sensitive to vibration)...

Randy, It definitely seems to go away after a while, but the leaning problem from this morning was with APM1 which I had returned to the quad after getting nowhere with APM2. If it's as simple as using velcro then I will try put APM2 back on, can't test again at the moment as there's a big thunderstorm here but will try again in the morning. Please let me know if I can provide any logs or other data to get to the bottom of this. I've posted a number of my observations and logs/graphs on this thread but if you need a summary or the logs themselves let me know.

Behaviour for throttle in completly different to earlier firmware versions. For lift off, i need about 80% throttle. After the quad is in air, usually i reduce throttle a little bit. But with this firmware version the quad is nearly to drop down. In my opinion the throtttle is very sensitive. Do i have to adust/tune some parameters?

Ive been away last two weeks but now just catching up. I see a lot of comments/problems with 2.4 for loiter and alt hold. I think I had just about got 2.3 setup right, so should I load 2.4 and be back to working out these issues again or just stick to 2.3 for the time being? Is 2.4 less of an issue than 2.3 was as it is now?